The present invention relates to articles such as items of furniture, packaging elements, lightweight partitions, and the like, comprised of planar parts assembled perpendicularly (or substantially perpendicularly, with the angles between them being unequal supplementary angles).
It has long been known to assemble two pieces each one of which has a slot of length one half that of the piece, whereby after the two slots are mutually engaged the pieces are fitted together from interlocking with their end faces being coplanar.
This trivial assembly is known as a rebated joint (in French, a "half timber joint"). When assembled, each slot is directed toward the solid member of the opposing piece, and the bottoms of the slots are essentially disposed against each other. Refinements of this basic arrangement are also known--in particular, arrangement of the assembled pieces at an angle other than a right angle.
There is also known (PCT OS No. WO-A-84/00024) an assembly which includes locking means for the pieces after they are engaged, such means being namely a rigid "key". The pieces themselves must be flexible so as to be able to elastically deform to enable the rigid key to be forcibly introduced.
Fr. Pat. No. 2,049,386 describes a construction assembly comprised of members having slots of complex shapes, enabling a "rebated joint" assembly with two different orientations, perpendicular or oblique. The slots in these members have openings in them which are disposed in planes parallel to the plane of the corresponding slot. These openings are intended to receive locking pins which are inserted by sliding. These pins must necessarily have a thickness less than that of the aforesaid assembled members, because the pins run parallel to the surface planes of the respective members.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,529,759 describes a structure comprised of crossbeams and of uprights assembled by means very similar to those described in Fr. Pt. No. 2,049,386 discussed supra except that only orthogonal assembly is provided for. What is important to note is that the slots of the classical "rebated joint" assembly according to the U.S. Pat. are associated with openings each of which accommodates a locking rod which must extend in a plane parallel to the surface planes of the respective assembled pieces.
The present invention is entirely different from these concepts, and notably it employs locking keys which may be esthetic as well as utilitarian, which keys are visible in the assembled condition.